It has been 10 years since a Broken Sword game has graced the inside of a home console. Point and click adventure games have gone through a disappearance and resurrection during those 10 years, culminating with Broken Sword 5: The Serpent’s Curse – a solid, if somewhat flawed return for the franchise.

As with past Broken Sword titles, The Serpent’s Curse follows our returning sleuths George Stobbart and Nico Collard as they have once again found themselves thrusted into the middle of a murder mystery that is not as straight forward as it seems. The story takes a winding trip from the middle of World War 2 to the present while wrapping in a nice fiction of religious artifacts and world changing scenarios pushed by maniacal henchmen. In other words, a normal day for Nico and George as things go.

Whether a new player or a long time veteran of the point and click adventure genre, people will quickly find their way around the controls and requirements of Broken Sword 5. The game uses a mouse-like control system, taking away any thought of direct control over your characters. One would surmise that this came from the porting of the game from a touch/point based operating system, and it works okay here, but it seems like Revolution should have taken a bit of time to convert the system to direct control.

Broken Sword 5 does boast puzzles both simple and complex for most difficulty levels. Most won’t require one to pressure too many brain cells, but there are a few decryption and deciphering puzzles that will stress one’s patience. Thankfully, there is a decent hint system built in for those that want to use it and there are no real penalties for using it.

While the puzzles are nice and translate well to the new platform, the visual styles of the game do not get much in the way of touching up. Yes, Broken Sword 5 did come out on PC, but it also came to iOS and Vita and was more than likely designed to meet the broad specs of the lowest common denominator. It’s not that Broken Sword 5 looks bad, but it just looks sort of average when compared to what you would expect from your high end home console. Its looks do have a nice charm to them and that helps it go a long way.

For a time of year when your consoles are being jammed with the latest and greatest in big budget spectaculars, Broken Sword 5 does offer up a nice alternative that will have you thinking your way through some fun puzzles wrapped inside of a rather intriguing story. It won’t win any awards for blockbuster of the year, but Broken Sword 5 will tickle your adventure puzzle solving bone just right.

Sherlock Holmes:

Charming visual style

Quality puzzles and storyline

A well designed hint system for those that get stuck

Inspector Clouseau

Feels like a mobile game

Would have been a bit better with direct control of characters

Does not exactly feel like much went into pushing the visuals during the porting process

Family Focus
Broken Sword 5 does touch on some sensitive subjects in regards of religion and philosophy. None of the content feels derogatory, but depending on your views on religion, you might not want a game informing your children on differing religious themes. But the violence is low and it does make your kids think with all the puzzles they have to solve. I think this is okay for young teens and up depending on your thoughts about religion.

This review was prepared using retail Xbox One code purchased by the reviewer.